Iron Man

When Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t flying beside military fighter jets as Iron Man, he was zinging his co-stars. It was one of the year’s best comedic performances, hidden inside a superhero movie that contained the perfect mix of banter and kick-ass action sequences, great for fans who had tired of clichéd “I’ll save you!” hero rhetoric. In Iron Man, director Jon Favreau gave us balance. Yes, there were missiles, but there was also dialogue that made sense. There were a few eye-candy babes who seemed to glance off camera at possible cue cards, but there was also Gwyneth Paltrow. There was even a relevant good vs. evil story, with Tony Stark battling the terrorists who kidnapped him in war-torn Afghanistan. Iron Man remains a charmingly written origin story of one of Marvel’s most beloved comic characters.